Eloquence Classics

‘Jeonghwan showed us why he was the winner of the Sydney International Piano Competition in a performance that had lyricism and explosive virtuosity in equal measure,’ wrote the Sydney Arts Guide.

Born in Seoul in 2000, Jeonghwan Kim began playing the piano at the age of six. In the following years, his numerous first prizes in national competitions led to his admittance to the Seoul Arts Centre Academy for Young Talented Musicians aged just nine. He and his family then moved to Berlin in 2011, where he has continued to earn extensive recognition in prestigious national and international piano competitions. He won two first prizes in the successive 2014 and 2015 editions of the ‘Jugend musiziert’ Competition. At the 2017 International Liszt Competition for Young Pianists in Weimar, he received the third prize along with two special prizes. Since then, he’s won major prizes at the Aarhus International Piano Competition, the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy competition in Berlin, and the Sendai International Piano Competition.

In July 2023 Jeonghwan entranced Australian audience as winner of the 2023 Sydney International Piano Competition. Such achievement was awarded after a series of recitals, chamber music and two concertos which he played with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under Benjamin Northey at the Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House. As part of his prizes he was awarded this live recording encompassing his complete solo rounds at the Sydney International Piano Competition.